ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The opening ceremony of a two-day conference on Water energy food security nexus will be held here at University School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Islamabad on February 16 (Tuesday).
The event will be organized by the joint collaboration of US embassy and National University of Science and Technology (NUST).
The conference main theme to increase the understanding of the interlinkages in the water energy and food security nexus and the challenges and opportunities in the nexus approach the conference would also highlight the focusing on trade-offs and synergies using a nexus approach for development of sustainable strategies to help ensure food water and energy security.
The main objectives of the conference will be to explore the ongoing research and innovations in the water energy food security nexus in Pakistan and to provide a platform for an exchange of ideas between US and Pakistan experts as well as key stakeholders in their fields.
The conference will cover various topics including “Understanding and Managing Complex Interaction between Water energy food security nexus”, “Challenges and Opportunities for development of Sustainable Strategies for Water sector”, “Challenges and Opportunities related to water energy and agriculture job market” Water-Energy-Food Security Nexus is now gaining much required attention and consensus of both political and technical experts as demonstrated at World Water Day 2014.
As per the UN Food and Agriculture (FAO) report, agriculture accounts for 70 percent of total global freshwater withdrawals making it the largest user of water.
Water is used for agriculture production forestry and fishery along the entire agri-food supply chain, and it used to produce or transport energy in different forms.
At the same time, food production and supply chain accounts for 30 percent of total energy consumed globally. Energy is required to produce transport and distribute food as well as to extract pump lift collect transport and treat water. Cities industry and other users claim increasingly more water energy and land resources resulting in environmental degradation and in some cases resource scarcity. Understanding the complex relationship between water energy and food systems has become critically important to the development of a sustainable and secure future for all nations.
This was clearly highlighted at the Bonn 2011 nexus conference held in the preparation for the United Nations (UN) Rio plus 20 conference. NUST and the UN Embassy in Islamabad are sponsoring a conference to increase understanding of the interlinkages in water, energy, and agriculture and focus on trade-offs and synergies.
The conference takes a nexus approach to facilitate the development of sustainable strategies to help ensure food water and energy security by enhancing resource use efficiency and encouraging greater policy coherence.
Source: APP
